Sponsoring the temple

VanderKam quotes 2 Maccabees 3:1-3’s claim that “King Seleucus of Asia defrayed from his own revenues all the expenses connected with the service of the sacrifices,” and comments: This continues “the centuries-old practice that the foreign overlord of Judea pay at least a part of the expenses involved in the Jerusalem cult.” He cites Ezra and Josephus’s quotation of an edict of Antiochus III.

The prophetic visions of kings supplying sacrifices and other materials for Israel’s temple worship thus had an historical precedent. The prophets were envisioning a restoration of the earlier practice of Gentile support and sponsorship for the temple.